


Native

by Thene



Category: Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII Series
Genre: Anger, F/F, Jealousy, Obedience, Power Play, Submission, Threesome - F/F/F, asshole fang, ffxiii for all of the melodrama, prompt what prompt, pubic grooming, ruining blanket fic, they won't stop talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-25
Updated: 2012-05-25
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:28:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thene/pseuds/Thene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fang is mad at Vanille.  Since when was that Lightning's problem?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Native

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lassarina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lassarina/gifts).



> "Lightning/Fang/Vanille. I'd like to see them get a little peace and a chance to lay down their burdens, at least for a little while (which does not necessarily mean I'm looking for endless fluff; bittersweet or struggle for a happy ending would both be great!) I love the similarities and differences between the three of them, how their skills complement each other (as soon as I could, I made them my standard party and rarely deviated.) Fang and Vanille are in a very different world than they remember and Lightning's is falling down around her; how do they all deal with that? Lightning is a soldier with no army. What does she do now? How do Fang and Vanille choose to make their lives? I'd love to see all of them in a relationship, though I'm also okay with Fang/Vanille paired and Lightning as a close friend. I'd prefer not to see Fang and Vanille broken up. I haven't finished XIII-2 as of this writing, though I've been pretty solidly spoiled for it, but mostly I just want to see them get a little bit of reward for their struggles; I think they earned it." 
> 
> With thanks to Lindorie. Spoilers through ch 11.

Lightning lay still and listened to Pulse; the night throbbed around her tent, chirps and animal wails coming through heavy air in broken rhythms. Her skin was too hot, and each alien sound seemed to thrum against it, itching and sticky. 

She was turning her eidolith around in the air. Her companions made clearer, closer sounds, and she let them pass over her; words and then movement, a furious pacing step, and the next howl from the plains below was answered with a long warning growl; after three days of life on Gran Pulse, Lightning still couldn't tell the real beast from its human mimic. She could hear what Pulse said, but she was glad to have someone close by who knew how to speak back to it.

The walls above her rustled. "Knock-knock." Lightning slid half-upright and lifted up the flap. Fang was illuminated in the eidolith's flickering pink glow, leaning against her spear with her head tilted down to Lightning's level. "Saw your little torch there, and figured you were still up."

She shuffled back to let Fang enter her shelter. "What's out there?"

"Lot of monsters below." Fang shrugged, and sat down crosslegged. She and Vanille had chosen them a secure enough campsite in the grassy fissure above Atomos's mineshafts; it had taken fifteen minutes of scrambling up vines even to reach here. _"Mostly safe,"_ Vanille had declared, a smile and spread hands indicating that it was as fine as life got on Gran Pulse, and then she had lain down on her blanket to rest while the rest of them were still arguing about how many of the climbing vines they could sacrifice to fuel a cooking fire.

Living in Cocoon's wilds had been gruelling enough - in retrospect Lightning was glad that Hope and Sazh had had that chance to adjust before being driven here. Snow already knew how to take care of himself (if only himself). But Vanille made it look fun, and Fang made it look easy. _How did I not know?_ Lightning asked herself. _When I first saw you. When I first spoke to her. Why didn't I realise?_

_Because you were unthinkable. Gran Pulse was unthinkable. And now I'm stuck here._

Fang looked at the still-turning rose, and her eyes slitted; a moment later her dragon's-tooth was in her hand, or inside her hand, or somewhere above it - the manipulation was clumsy, and she frowned at it until it stilled. "Can't get used to this thing."

"Didn't have them, before?"

"Nope. Don't think so. Bit fuzzy on the details there." The red crystal tilted first one way, then another. "Maybe you should ask Vanille."

Well, that sounded bitter.

Lightning didn't know what to say, but she was tired of all the hidden things that weren't so hidden at all. "I heard you."

Fang was staring at the ground in the red crystal-light, and Lightning felt compassion itching at her like a new pair of boots. Fang didn't seem to need anything beyond understanding; Vanille might have asked for more. She had never wanted to get involved in other people's love stories, but fighting for survival had come to mean more than facing down gods and killing old allies.

"Did I wake you up?" Fang asked.

"No," Lightning assured her. _Gran Pulse woke me up._

Fang tossed the eidolith hard against the ground. "Why in fuck couldn't she just _tell_ me? Why did she have to lead me on like that?"

Lightning closed her eyes, recalling Vanille's squeaked reply to that same question; _"I didn't see any point in hurting you -"_

_"Hurting me? Give me a fucking break, you think I'm -"_

_\- scared of yourself? of what Anima asks of you? of what you did for her before?_

That was when she'd heard Vanille start sobbing, and Fang storm off into the night; she wasn't sure in which order.

Lightning didn't feel Fang was expecting an answer, but she sought tenaciously for the right words. "It's hard to think about someone you love suffering. I," she admitted, "I might have made the same mistake. When Serah told me she was a l'Cie," and Fang looked up sharply, and if her eyes hadn't said that she _needed to hear_ Lightning might not have been able to go on, "I didn't believe her. All I needed to do was ask her to show me the brand but I didn't. I pushed her away. I didn't want to deal with it."

_It was completely unthinkable. Like you._

"That's rough."

_That's one way of telling me I fucked up just like Vanille fucked up. And you've no sympathy._

Fang gave an irritated flick of the wrist and the eidolith reappeared in her hand. Wouldn't let go. She gave Lightning a long stare, hunter's eyes lit red and deep as the sky. "Don't suppose I could stay here tonight?" 

"What?" Lightning shifted in surprise.

"It's either that or go back over there and say sorry, and..."

"You're not."

"Hell I'm not," said Fang, with feeling. "Sorry she's scared to face some damn facts? No way." 

_It's not about me. It never would be._ Lightning said nothing, knowing Fang could take her silence as assent.

Shrugging, Fang squeezed her hand over the red light, and opened it again. "You ever get used to this rock?"

"I get used to feeling tested."

"But you won, right?" Lightning had the prickling feeling that Fang was staring right through her; a predator, aiming for her heart - 

_Yeah, or maybe -_

She crushed both the sentiment and the self-flattery; Fang was staring at spot on her chest where Anima had branded her, and she folded her arms, touching her own burned-white skin. The red light withered. 

"I won," Lightning replied, and she shuffled aside on her blanket, turning away and killing the rose light inside. Small comfort, but something more certain than Fang had. Fang neither won nor lost. _She just is. Is Ragnarok. That's been in her history all this time._

"Hey, thanks," murmured Fang, and Lightning felt her settle behind her in the dark. Another warm body was the last thing her sleepless senses needed, and she twitched awkwardly into a corner, trying to find room to move. "Kick me if I snore, won't you? S'what Vanille does." A great yawn followed, and Lightning almost expected some plains-animal to answer it. "Lemme know if I can...return the favour...like sometime when it gets cold at night, you know."

Every so often, the red light flickered.

Lightning lay on her back, and found she didn't mind being awake. She watched Fang in the slow-shutter lamp of the half-tamed eidolith. _Did I help you by listening, or did you help me by listening, or did I just let you make your troubles worse?_

 

"Vanille's gonna be pissed," Fang announced. It was a conspiratorially quiet declaration, and not just deliberate but satisfied. Lightning pulled on her boots with a sigh. _It's still about Vanille - always would be._ "Don't let her get to you, alright? She can be a real bitch when she thinks there's a reason for it."

"Why would she think there's a reason?" Fang grinned without replying, and Lightning snapped at her. "What reason?"

Fang shrugged, and lifted the corner of the tent-flap, making a study of the pattern of dew outside. "Nothing she'll bear a grudge about." She raised a finger and tasted the moisture that she'd gathered on its tip, and Lightning's mind froze to watch her; _that's water._ It came from the sky. It wasn't a Fal'Cie that did that. And Fang was just _tasting_ it like -

 _Like it's their world and she doesn't even_ care.

Lightning tried not to gape at her in wonder, and Fang didn't even stop talking. "I can't stay mad at Vanille. It's like staggering something - always gets back up again, well, unless you finish it off for good. But I want to keep her guessing, just a bit. Can't just let her off for free."

 _For free?_ Lightning felt her temper catch at her, pulling through that tangle of compassion. "That's petty." Fang didn't deny it. "I thought this was about Ragnarok. Our focus. It's not a game and I'm not playing it."

Fang's hands spread open, and one of them crept up her arm to her brand. "Could be there's a reason I had to forget that, you know? It's easy to not play if you're not the one doing the bloody work -"

"Fang -"

"I told you. If it's any trouble, I'll make it up to you," she shrugged. "Don't even have to wait for bad weather. Anytime, I swear it, just ask me. Won't be waiting, mind."

"For what?"

"Bad weather." Fang stepped out into the daylight, and Lightning saw her hands raise, testing the air and the sunlight. "Never have to wait long for that around here."

Lightning curled her hands into fists. This wasn't a game yet she'd just been outplayed, and with her blood full of purpose and fury and exhaustion, she couldn't stay on the sidelines if she wanted to. She was too involved and this was too important. What they all shared was too important.

And here they were on Pulse, bickering and waiting for rain.

 

The rain had started while they were still deep in Mah'habara; first droplets, then rivulets, falling down each airshaft they passed. "Just a shower, blow over in no time," Fang had assured them, and when they surfaced hours later it was into a smothering curtain of water. Lightning found herself hating its relentlessness and its lack of a stated schedule, and hating herself for missing the Cocoon Fal'Cie.

She and Fang had walked together for a while in the morning, and Lightning had fallen into step with her in silence. It was easy to be together now, fighting or sleeping or walking in an automatic tandem, and she felt stabs of resentment at Fang for making it feel so simple. She remembered knowing how to be herself, how to live for herself and her sister, how to fight for herself and Cocoon, and now? All feeling and rhythm. Pulse wasn't the enemy, and nothing was true any more.

They were parted in the midmorning by a vicious monster attack; Fang formed a rearguard with Snow, while Lightning roved ahead of the rest of them, feet splattering through streams of water as she looked for threats and obstacles. When they reached the mountain grassland again, it seemed natural for Vanille to come scout with her.

Everything Vanille did seemed natural.

Even in the pouring rain, she was eager to say the name of every rock and wildflower she saw, like a litany of homecoming. Lightning spent more attention on the monsters they were chasing off, but Vanille's _oh-don't-mind-those!_ attitude was oddly comforting. _'It's only Pulse. It's not a nest of vipers, it's just home' - is that what you want to say?_

_Are you angry?_

Lightning realised she was making a threat assessment. Of a smiling girl with warm rain running all down her body, sometimes dancing as they walked, sometimes watching over the sheer vista and looking hopelessly lonely. Never caring what Lightning thought of these displays. _If being a l'Cie has taught me anything, it's that anyone might turn into an enemy of anyone_. Was she imagining that something had changed since yesterday? Could she really feel Vanille staring through the back of her head every time she turned away?

_('Threat assessment' is when I can't keep my eyes off someone - two someones.)_

Waiting it out wouldn't work. Not with Vanille. Fang had proved that. _Say something_ , she told herself. 

"Is it always like this?"

"What?" Vanille turned on her heel, surprised that Lightning was finally taking an interest. "Like, big and rainy?"

"Big and empty. Where is everyone?"

Vanille frowned, and Lightning wondered if she were being cruel. "Well, I've been gone for five hundred years - it's not like I'd know anyone anyway. And we're not in Oerba yet..." She looked over the cliffs towards the horizon, and Lightning saw a hope pinned to a cloud in her eyes. _You're lonely, and homesick even at home. You can't afford to lose people. You'll say whatever you think will keep the people around you happy. You won't confront anyone._

_So I have to do it._

What else had she learned? _If I need to, lie. Call her bluff - it's what Fang did._

"Why are you angry with me?" She made it cold and sudden, like any of her attacks might be.

Vanille's face crumpled with guilt. A child's guilt, caught doing what she shouldn't be. Feeling what she shouldn't be. "I heard you two talking last night..." Of course she did. "Is - is Fang going to share your tent from now on?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

"She's mad at me."

"When did that become my problem?" It wasn't rhetorical. That was the worst part; _it wasn't rhetorical_. But she knew how defensive it sounded.

Vanille just folded her hands together and stared at them. For a second, Lightning thought she saw them illuminated from the inside - orange light slipping through cracks. "She knows I never wanted to hurt her! I said I was sorry! So why is she hurting me?"

Lightning let that answer itself, and walked on.

"Wait!" Vanille danced around her, and grabbed her hand roughly. "I didn't mean for this to go so far. I was _going_ to tell her - it just always seemed like there was something too important happening, and then I started to wonder if maybe, just maybe it would be better if she didn't have to know..." 

Lightning stopped trying to draw her hand away when she realised Vanille was crying. "Vanille..." She reached out impulsively and put hands to her shoulders, more gently than she thought she knew how. "It's not your intentions that were the problem. It's what you did that hurt her. If you want Fang to forgive you for that and start trusting you again, you need to give her more time." 

Vanille sagged under her hands, and her head fell against Lightning's arm. She felt an urge to hold her tighter, hold her until their journey was over and everything was fine _(is this what Fang feels when she touches you?)_ ; she ignored it and let Vanille stumble, words coming out splintered by strain. "Is that _it_ for now? Does she want me to stay away from her?"

She remembered watching them after the eidolon came, with a lump in her throat because she didn't know how not to care any more, seeing Vanille cry in Fang's arms and, _maybe Fang would have said anything at that moment to stop you weeping, however she felt. I won't do that._ "I don't know. You need to talk to her yourself."

"Well, I guess I shouldn't have bothered you, then," she replied hopelessly.

"No." Vanille looked up at her in surprise. "I had to be here to point you back the right way. Maybe that's all she wanted me to do."

Vanille frowned. "You think Fang planned this? You mean, she and you didn't..." She slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh. Ohh. I'm sorry." Lightning stared at her, trying to figure out what imagined slight had been done to who now, and Vanille babbled on with all the restraint of a river. "I thought, you've always looked at her like, well, couldn't have blamed you if you'd finally - I thought it was my fault. Or I guess it would have been my fault if you had, but you didn't, so... Never mind!" She blushed, and walked away so fast that raindrops seemed to skitter away from her hips. Lightning watched her climb the rise, stooping like a long-necked bird. _Whatever it takes to get out of this. Whatever it takes to not face facts, to keep it all hypothetical and never_ say _, yes, it was your fault and you need someone to forgive you?_

Vanille ran on upward, toes digging heedlessly in damp ground. She was looking at the moody sky like a child looking up at a Fal'Cie.

_Whatever it takes to get you home._

 

She tried not to think about it. Watching for monsters occupied more than enough of her time; even after the rain stopped, there was a lot of strangeness to adjust her senses to, and she couldn't afford the distraction. Before they settled in for the night, Vanille took Fang's hand and led her away from their camp; Lightning sat alone, not even pretending to keep watch while Snow and Sazh roasted their monsterflesh dinner. Hope tried to talk to her. It wasn't a good move.

She tried not to think about them. All that she'd learned since becoming a l'Cie was there in her mind, a rack full of intellectual weaponry, and she tried not to reach out and touch it all. She tried not to see Fang perusing the same tools, taking one coldly and raising it in her hand; _nothing kills dissent faster than an external threat._

_I am the external threat._

_You just wanted Vanille to capitulate and grovel for your forgiveness sometime before we all turned into cieth, and you used me to make it happen._

It was a study in elegant manipulation. Lightning tried to count up all the people who'd used her at this point, quickly lost track, and wondered how long she could tolerate bearing this particular grudge.

Fang and Vanille returned with their usual perfect timing, just as Snow decided dinner was ready; their hands were touching easily, and Fang wasn't meeting her eyes. Vanille was. With a happy smile. Lightning felt the urge to punch it, but knew Fang would lay her out if she tried.

 _No one gets what they want without fighting for it._ Maybe she'd learned not to fight when she didn't know what she wanted. She couldn't win; didn't know the territory, would be fighting two-to-one, would be hearing the clock tick away every second.

She let herself grow cold inside, still watching. Ignoring Sazh when he asked if there was something up. Ignoring Snow's banter, Hope's fidgeting, Vanille's poisonous smile. Fang's silence. _Hadn't had to wait for bad weather_ ; the hair stood up on her arms.

_What is it I want?_

She wanted more time to think than she had.

 

She'd sat alone while the others turned in for the night; examining those inner weapons again, finding one that might be worth sharpening; Fang _owed_ her. At this point, it almost didn't matter what she was owed, only that it was something and she was going to take it and find out what it was for. She walked to their tent, and rattled her gunblade against a tent-post.

Two hands lifted the flap, and two faces greeted her.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Only some more of Fang's big apology -"

" _Vanille's_ big apology." Fang looked like she was enjoying the moment too much to be angry at anything. Her peacefulness after conflict was a mystery to Lightning, and she was reminded of all the times she'd consoled Serah after an argument with Snow and none-too-privately hoped it would be their last - in reality, their separations never lasted longer than a day at the most. Fang knew how to win people back, and it wasn't by playing fair. 

They looked up at her with shining eyes and, to make room for her to slip in, Vanille shifted across the tent and into Fang's arms. Inside, the light was a gentle orange and the air felt too warm - _I'm interrupting something._ Lightning sat down awkwardly, wishing the whole episode would resolve itself without her having to say anything. It wouldn't. Not for her; she watched Fang's arms tighten around Vanille, and lost an unsteady moment to wanting to be not-talked to like that.

"...Cold out there, is it?" Fang grinned, her face tucked against Vanille's throat, and Lightning breathed in sharply.

"Yes - no." It was, once again, obscenely hot. But what other words did she have to say she didn't _want_ to be alone, for just _once_ in all her life she didn't want to soldier on by herself and push away all thoughts of how shit-terrifying the next morning could be and how angry she was about everything that had already happened. _Be strong. Be strong for Serah. Be strong for Hope. Be strong with a brand eating my flesh away and a whole new world trying to kill me just to make me stronger. Be strong with the pair of you playing with me._ "...I've had a lot on my mind."

"So spill it out," said Vanille. "We're here for you."

 _Like I've been here for you, intentionally or no._ She scowled, not sure how to begin. "I don't know how much time I have to -"

"You can't even see the damn thing straight from up there, can you?" Fang leaned forward, eyes narrow. "Show me your brand."

It felt like an order, and Oerba Yun Fang had no goddamned standing to give Lightning Farron an order, and her hands rose right to her neck-zipper anyway. She pulled open her padded shirt, refusing to look down. It had been days since she'd even _tried_ to count the arrows. She'd steal looks at Hope's or Snow's and feel time creeping over her, squeezing down below her throat. 

She turned her head aside as Vanille darted forward and grabbed her collar. "Hmm..." Dainty hands pulled her clothing further apart, and she made herself keep still as Vanille examined the mark above her breast, stroking it softly, as if she were trying to catch the racing heartbeat beneath it. "Eye's not open yet. Could be worse, right? I guess mine's about the same, if you want to see?" She let go, and turned herself aside on Fang's lap. She shifted one leg out from underneath herself, and Lightning gasped as she stretched herself out on her back. Vanille held her right foot close to her head, modesty guarded only by a small fold of her skirt, and that by accident rather than design.

Lightning sought Fang's eyes, and found that Fang was laughing at her stupefation. "Just wait til you see what other neat positions she can do." She winked, and reached down to give Vanille's brand a gentle, possessive rub. "Get a good eyeful," she advised.

"Touch it, if you need to," added Vanille. "Only fair, right? I touched yours."

She nodded, and wondered why she was too nervous to speak. She had to look close, in the low light, and Vanille twitched a little each time she breathed. She could _smell_ Vanille from here, and the crosshatch of arrows blurred in her mind, circling around the red eyeslit. She touched because it was the only way she could keep count. Vanille made a soft sound, and when she looked up again, Fang seemed satisfied. She was smiling with her mouth open, at least.

It seemed like a long way to go just to find out that she wasn't dead yet, but her heart was beating fast and she didn't care. Vanille unfolded herself gracefully. "So," she said. "Will you stay here with us tonight?"

She was still lying down, if that was the right word for such an acrobatic arch over Fang's knees. Fang's hands were against her, drifting around her hips and thighs with unmistakable intent. "We got a policy, when someone stays," Fang said.

"What?" Lightning's lips were completely dry.

" _We_ entertain." 

Vanille sat up suddenly, smiling playfully. "It's our treat. We're great believers in Gran Pulse hospitality."

 _Gran Pulse hospitality. That has to mean the kind where they eat you alive -_ "Yes," she murmured, entirely aware of what she was agreeing to, and felt each of her arms seized in a moment.

It was Fang's hand that returned to her zipper, and dipped much, much deeper than it had to to draw it down to her belt. It was Vanille that caressed the back of her neck and pulled her collar down to trap her clothes around her shoulders, and Fang who opened her belt and whistled and touched her brand, tapped the eye, kissed it lightly.

"Gran Pulse hospitality," murmured Fang against her throat, "is what comes from knowing that the only mercy we'll ever have is from each other."

"There's nothing like giving a friend a break from their struggles," added Vanille. She eased Lightning down onto her back, and Fang came with her, smothering any hope of untangling her arms. "But when you're hosting, there's gotta be a few house rules, no?"

Fang sat up slowly, and unwrapped her sari. "Not _too_ many, though. We are savages, right, Vanille?" Lightning felt their laughter looming either side of her. "First rule is, you keep still for us. We like that. Second rule is, you tell us what you want. If you don't, we'll be doing what _we_ want. You got that?"

"Got it," and her blood simmered as she said it. She wanted this badly enough that it was easy to accept their strange terms of engagement, and that shocked her. When she felt Vanille's hands on her hips, she raised them easily to let her skirt and shorts slide down. _Just touch me_ -

"Fang! Fang, look at this!"

"Huh?" Fang turned, and Lightning saw her eyes, and her smile, widen. "Well, I guess there's a lot we didn't know about girls from Cocoon..." Fang stretched out a hand, and her fingertips came _so_ close, brushing through the week's-worth of pink stubble on Lightning's pelvis. She wanted to hide from the scrutiny. She wanted Fang to touch her everywhere - _so ask her, I could ask her, I can't ask her, oh..._

"I think it's pretty, don't you?" Vanille lifted her own skirt with one hand, and with the other she stroked through a cloud of red curls, and Lightning gasped at the beauty and wildness of it; so real and near. 

"Oh, yeah. Bit prickly right now."

"It'll be like kissing a man! _Oh!_ " Her hand moved harder against herself, and Fang grabbed it at the wrist, raised it, kissed it.

"Slow down, girl. Mmm." She licked it to the knuckle, and then leaned over Lightning's body, kissing Vanille deeply. Their hands roamed and she watched Fang's black breast-band slide slowly up, flesh escaping below it, and Lightning wanted to touch it so badly because it was the only soft part of her she'd yet seen. _Keep still!_ \- another game, only this time, she _wanted_ them to toy with her. 

She must have made some sound as she watched Fang's bare breasts swaying against Vanille's lithe body, and they parted with a laugh. "You're getting carried away," Vanille accused.

"Because you're a temptress. Get those off," Fang demanded. She slipped off her own underclothes as Vanille fiddled with her straps and ties. "Can't be neglecting our guest, can we?" She turned Lightning's chin with her hand and kissed her.

It was a lot better, a lot more satisfying, than punching her. Meltingly gentle until she found the wits to return it, and then she met a strength that matched her own, something she could push back against and take from. She felt a smile against hers and Fang's teeth nipped her lower lip, and she opened up to her eagerly, needing more and more and more. It was everything she would have expected from Fang - playful and dangerous. She felt hands move over her, slipping downwards as she tried not to move with them - _keep still_ \- and Fang pulled away from her lips, letting her breathe free for a second before she was replaced by Vanille.

Vanille was gentle, too. And she moved constantly, tongue darting in to Lightning's mouth and sliding out again, soft and never still; hands, someone's, Fang's, caressed her in Vanille's rhythm until Lightning ached and moaned against those lips. "Hey," whispered Vanille. "You're not forgetting our second rule, are you?"

"You want something," Fang touched her brand and traced down over her breasts, to her navel, to her tense thighs, "You gotta tell us."

"Touch me," she said desperately.

"Where?" 

Fang cupped a breast, squeezed it. Lightning felt her skin burning and thought about punching her again. This wasn't the perfunctory fumble she was used to. No one had ever made rules. No one had ever made her ask for anything. No one made her feel exposed just because she was naked. But Fang and Vanille did.

She wasn't sure whether to hate them or love them for it. "There's fine -"

One hand immediately became four, stroking and teasing and flickering over her nipples. Making her twitch and squirm. "Fang, I'm not sure I believe her."

She struggled with herself, needing words and contact and needing to do as they said, _be still_ , even with the heat of their trap closing over her body. She'd never learned the words for this. "Lower down," she tried, knowing they'd laugh at her awkwardness.

They didn't. They only responded, and she heard Fang say a triumphant _'oh-ho'_ at the slickness of her _\- like she found a damn treasure sphere -_ and she tried not to move against the steady hand but it wasn't possible, it was there and she had to move against it. "Hey," Vanille said, and pressed down against her hips, lowering herself over her - and her lips were seized in a kiss, her thigh encircled by Vanille's and she felt Vanille's heat at its apex, and the cold tingling of her brand lower down.

 _Her brand. My brand -_ She thought of the way Fang had kissed it, and stilled herself even as every nerve burned with want. _We don't have much time, we can't make the rules, and we've got to make ourselves free._ She returned Vanille's kiss, delving with her tongue and trying to use her desperation to push past her lack of grace. She felt Fang's hand pull away from her, and she growled.

"You always want everything yesterday?" Fang asked, and Vanille giggled into Lightning's mouth. Her hips moved over Lightning's, and she felt that liquid heat shifting fast against her body. "Move over, Vanille."

"But - I'm almost -"

"We're being hospitable, right? Guest gets the first slice." Vanille grumbled and rolled off to lay alongside her, and Lightning felt her husky breaths against her ear. Then her lips on her neck, and hands that wouldn't stop moving over her. She felt Fang move over her legs, stooped like a beast over a kill, and felt a tongue that was more gentle than any word she'd ever heard it say.

A pause. "You want this?" checked Fang.

"Please -" Fang didn't hesitate another moment, and Lightning's mind rang with pleasure, and every moment, every extra swipe Vanille made at her breasts, brought her closer to overdrive. She gave up a moan, and Vanille's hand stopped her mouth. "Shh! Someone might hear. And _we_ wouldn't mind, it's a compliment really, but Cocoon people seem more fussy." Unable to say _I can shush when she stops doing that thing she's doing_ , Lightning bit her fingers. "Oww." 

"You were right, you know," murmured Fang in a brief reprieve. "Reminds me of kissin' Captain Rygdea."

"You kissed Captain Rygdea?!"

"She tastes a damn sight better," Fang replied cheerfully, and Lightning heard Vanille giggle as her senses were assaulted again. And she tried, fought to keep herself in check, trying to deny herself until she couldn't even think any more, and Fang tongued her faster, Vanille stroked and whispered _'let go'_ and covered her with her hands and body, twirling at the hard nubs of her nipples.

It started gently, as if Fang had exhaled a tremor that passed straight through her, and then it turned so hard that her ears rang as if she were tumbling through Pulse's sky again, blind and helpless. She tried to buck away but there were hands holding her down with force, someone saying _'keep still'_ and it _kept going_ until she couldn't have moved if she'd willed it, was only held together by their arms around her.

It was a while before she could think again. They let go of her, a limb at a time, and as her vision returned she saw them gloating over her in clear pride at their own accomplishment. This time, she'd bitten Vanille's shoulder, and Fang was touching it admiringly as if it were a hunt-wound.

She found herself pushed to one side, limbs curled into her body, consigned to watch for a while as the two women entertained themselves without her. They were shockingly beautiful together, vibrant clashing with fragile, and she felt a painful wash of returning heat in her aching tissue. Fang reared her head up, hips spread over Vanille's face, and Lightning had to stretch out a hand to her. _Gran Pulse mercy_ , and for a few hours in the night, some of it was about her.

 

Afterwards, they nestled themselves one either side of her, and Vanille extinguished her tiny eidolith light. In the dark, Gran Pulse seemed louder and closer, and strangely less indifferent. Like it knew they were there, and wanted to hold them as it sang its goodnight. _That's sentiment. Like thinking a Fal'Cie cares. It's something that happens to you when you feel good inside._

Lightning didn't have to tell them anything - she had what she wanted - but found herself speaking anyway. "Thank you. That was...eye-opening."

Vanille gasped. "That's not funny!"

"Yeah it is," said Fang, nudging her hard in the ribs.

They laughed and she didn't think about time or freedom or what Hope would say about Vanille's new bruise, or Cocoon, or even Serah. She wondered if Gran Pulse were heaven.


End file.
